5 Reasons to Use a Software Load Balancer

5 Reasons to Use a Software Load Balancer

Evolve your approach to Application Performance Monitoring by adopting five best practices that are outlined and explored in this e-book. brought to you in partnership with BMC .

Today, computer and internet usage is at an all-time high, and reliable performance is both necessary and critical for businesses of all sizes. To increase the speed of system loading, decrease downtime, and eliminate single points of failure, load balancing is the answer.Load balancers help provide the seamless experience that users desire. Well-designed infrastructure includes a good load balancer plan so that any potential failures are detected, requests are rerouted to redundant points, and users never notice any failures.

Until very recently, load balancing was heavily dependent on hardware; but that has all changed. With load balancing software, these tasks are done smoothly and automatically. In fact, there are a number of reasons to choose load balancing software.

1. Less Expensive

Deploying software is much less expensive than buying hardware every time a change is made. Replacing hardware with load balancing software is DevOps-friendly and eliminates the siloing between DevOps and the rest of the departments within a business. It puts application management squarely in the hands of those best able to handle it. Additionally, maintenance can be done anytime, anywhere.

2. Scalable

Software load balancing is a natural choice for achieving high availability that is sustainable as the business and infrastructure grow. Also, having at least two backend servers maintains high availability, with software load balancers ensuring that traffic is directed to the server that is more readily available.

3. Easier Maintenance

This is one of the main reasons a software load balancer is a better choice than a hardware-based application delivery controller (ADC). In fact, performance is often a serious issue with legacy ADCs. Load balancing software can run anywhere, and any upgrades or maintenance can be done from a variety of devices – PCs, tablets, or even smartphones.

4. Flexible

Migrating old, hardware-based infrastructure to cloud-based environments allows agile development and the ability to upgrade and refine features easily. Software load balancers can be deployed anywhere. They work easily in both cloud and virtual environments and have open APIs so they can be integrated with all the tools you already use. Simply download and configure the software – no expensive hardware required.

5. Faster

Nobody likes features that are buggy or underperform. We expect things to work right the first time and every time after that. In our increasingly digital world, we want instant responses and fast load times. Software load balancers will run fast in any environment. There are no hardware configuration limitations and you can scale infrastructure to the size you need. Load balancing software gives you the power to manage delivery effectively for optimal performance.

Software load balancing use is growing rapidly, and it will continue to grow and be refined further as time goes by. We are already seeing huge organizations use load balancing software, with the Amazon load balancer, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), one of the most popular examples.

10 emerging technologies for Big Data

I’ve recently had the opportunity to have a conversation with Dr. Satwant Kaur on the topic of Big Data (see my previous interview with Dr. Kaur, “The 10 traits of the smart cloud “). Dr. Kaur has an extensive history in IT, being the author of Intel’s Transitioning Embedded Systems to Intelligent Environments. Her professional background, which includes four patents while at Intel CA, 20 distinguished awards, ten keynote conference speeches at IEEE, and over 50 papers and publications, has earned her the nickname, “The First Lady of Emerging Technologies.” Dr. Kaur will be delivering the keynote at the CES show: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE).

While the topic of Big Data is broad and encompasses many trends and new technology developments, she managed to give me a very good overview of what she considers to be the top ten emerging technologies that are helping users cope with and handle Big Data in a cost-effective manner.

Dr. Kaur:

Traditional, row-oriented databases are excellent for online transaction processing with high update speeds, but they fall short on query performance as the data volumes grow and as data becomes more unstructured. Column-oriented databases store data with a focus on columns, instead of rows, allowing for huge data compression and very fast query times. The downside to these databases is that they will generally only allow batch updates, having a much slower update time than traditional models.

Schema-less databases, or NoSQL databases

There are several database types that fit into this category, such as key-value stores and document stores, which focus on the storage and retrieval of large volumes of unstructured, semi-structured, or even structured data. They achieve performance gains by doing away with some (or all) of the restrictions traditionally associated with conventional databases, such as read-write consistency, in exchange for scalability and distributed processing.

This is a programming paradigm that allows for massive job execution scalability against thousands of servers or clusters of servers. Any MapReduce implementation consists of two tasks:

The “Map” task, where an input dataset is converted into a different set of key/value pairs, or tuples;

The “Reduce” task, where several of the outputs of the “Map” task are combined to form a reduced set of tuples (hence the name).

Hadoop

Hadoop is by far the most popular implementation of MapReduce, being an entirely open source platform for handling Big Data. It is flexible enough to be able to work with multiple data sources, either aggregating multiple sources of data in order to do large scale processing, or even reading data from a database in order to run processor-intensive machine learning jobs. It has several different applications, but one of the top use cases is for large volumes of constantly changing data, such as location-based data from weather or traffic sensors, web-based or social media data, or machine-to-machine transactional data.

Hive is a “SQL-like” bridge that allows conventional BI applications to run queries against a Hadoop cluster. It was developed originally by Facebook, but has been made open source for some time now, and it’s a higher-level abstraction of the Hadoop framework that allows anyone to make queries against data stored in a Hadoop cluster just as if they were manipulating a conventional data store. It amplifies the reach of Hadoop, making it more familiar for BI users.

PIG is another bridge that tries to bring Hadoop closer to the realities of developers and business users, similar to Hive. Unlike Hive, however, PIG consists of a “Perl-like” language that allows for query execution over data stored on a Hadoop cluster, instead of a “SQL-like” language. PIG was developed by Yahoo. and, just like Hive, has also been made fully open source.

WibiData is a combination of web analytics with Hadoop, being built on top of HBase, which is itself a database layer on top of Hadoop. It allows web sites to better explore and work with their user data, enabling real-time responses to user behavior, such as serving personalized content, recommendations and decisions.

Perhaps the greatest limitation of Hadoop is that it is a very low-level implementation of MapReduce, requiring extensive developer knowledge to operate. Between preparing, testing and running jobs, a full cycle can take hours, eliminating the interactivity that users enjoyed with conventional databases. PLATFORA is a platform that turns user’s queries into Hadoop jobs automatically, thus creating an abstraction layer that anyone can exploit to simplify and organize datasets stored in Hadoop.

As the data volumes grow, so does the need for efficient and effective storage techniques. The main evolutions in this space are related to data compression and storage virtualization.

SkyTree is a high-performance machine learning and data analytics platform focused specifically on handling Big Data. Machine learning, in turn, is an essential part of Big Data, since the massive data volumes make manual exploration, or even conventional automated exploration methods unfeasible or too expensive.

Big Data in the cloud

As we can see, from Dr. Kaur’s roundup above, most, if not all, of these technologies are closely associated with the cloud. Most cloud vendors are already offering hosted Hadoop clusters that can be scaled on demand according to their user’s needs. Also, many of the products and platforms mentioned are either entirely cloud-based or have cloud versions themselves.

Big Data and cloud computing go hand-in-hand. Cloud computing enables companies of all sizes to get more value from their data than ever before, by enabling blazing-fast analytics at a fraction of previous costs. This, in turn drives companies to acquire and store even more data, creating more need for processing power and driving a virtuous circle.

About Thoran Rodrigues

After working for a database company for 8 years, Thoran Rodrigues took the opportunity to open a cloud services company. For two years his company has been providing services for several of the largest e-commerce companies in Brazil, and over this t.

Full Bio

After working for a database company for 8 years, Thoran Rodrigues took the opportunity to open a cloud services company. For two years his company has been providing services for several of the largest e-commerce companies in Brazil, and over this time he had the opportunity to work on large scale projects ranging from data retrieval to high-availability critical services.

8 Big Data Solutions for Small Businesses

Big Data isn t just for big businesses with big budgets. Today, small business, too, can reap the benefits of the massive amounts of online and offline information to make wise, data-driven decisions to grow their businesses. Most Big Data discussions concern enterprises that have all the resources to hire data scientists and research firms. But if you know where to look, there are several ways that your small business can gather, analyze and make sense of data you already have without breaking the bank. Here are eight Big Data solutions for small businesses.

1. ClearStory Data

Analyzing complex business intelligence doesn t have to be rocket science. ClearStory Data offers advanced data mining and analytics tools that also present information in a simple, easy to understand way.

ClearStory Data works by combining your business s internal data with publicly available information to help you make better business decisions. These insights are displayed using the StoryBoard feature, which lets you create graphs, story lines and interactive visuals right from the ClearStory dashboard. It also comes with collaboration features that enable team discussion, for instance, by commenting on individual StoryBoards, much like you would on social media. In addition to business data, ClearStory can also provide department-specific data, including marketing, sales, operations and customer analytics. The platform also covers a wide range of industries, such as retail, food and beverage, media and entertainment, financial services, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, pharmaceutical and more. Contact ClearStory Data for pricing information.

2. Kissmetrics

Looking to increase your marketing ROI? Kissmetrics. a popular customer intelligence and web analytics platform, could be your best friend. The platform aims to help businesses optimize their digital marketing by identifying its best customers and increasing conversions.

Unlike traditional web analytics tools, Kissmetrics goes beyond tracking basic metrics like pageviews, referrals and demographic information. Kissmetrics specifically tracks visitors, particularly for insights that can be used for better segmentation and more successful marketing campaigns. Kissmetrics also offers engagement tools to help increase sales, such as the ability to create triggers and design styles that make the most out of customer behaviors. All of this means more conversions, less churning customers who quickly leave your site and, ultimately, higher ROIs. In addition, Kissmetrics offers educational resources to help business improve marketing campaigns, such as marketing webinars, how-to guides, articles and infographics. Kissmetrics plans starts at $120 per month. [See Related Story:Best CRM Software for Small Business]

3. InsightSquared

The tools you already use provide another rich source of data. This doesn t mean you have to waste time mining your own data and arduously analyzing it using one spreadsheet after another. Instead, InsightSquared connects to popular business solutions you probably already use such as Salesforce, QuickBooks, ShoreTel Sky, Google Analytics, Zendesk and more to automatically gather data and extract actionable information.

For instance, using data from customer relationship (CRM) software, InsightSquared can provide a wealth of small business sales intelligence, such as pipeline forecasting, lead generation and tracking, profitability analysis, and activity monitoring. It can also help businesses discover trends, strengths and weaknesses, sales team wins and losses, and more. In addition to sales tools, InsightSquared s suite of products also includes marketing, financial, staffing and support analytics tools. InsightSquared starts at $65 per user per month.

Editor s Note: Looking for CRM software for your business? If you re looking for information to help you choose the one that s right for you, use the questionnaire below to have our sister site, BuyerZone, provide you with information from vendors for free:

4. Google Analytics

You don t need fancy, expensive software to begin gathering data. It can start from an asset you already have your website. Google Analytics. Google s free Web-traffic-monitoring tool, provides all types of data about website visitors, using a multitude of metrics and traffic sources.

With Google Analytics, you can extract long-term data to reveal trends and other valuable information, so you can make wise, data-driven decisions. For instance, by tracking and analyzing visitor behavior such as where traffic is coming from, how audiences engage and how long visitors stay on a website (known as bounce rates) you can make better decisions when striving to meet your website s or online store s goals. Another example is analyzing social media traffic, which will allow you to make changes to your social media marketing campaigns based on what is and isn t working. Studying mobile visitors can also help you extract information about customers browsing your site using their mobile devices, so you can provide a better mobile experience. Here s how to sign up for Google Analytics .

5. IBM s Watson Analytics

While many Big Data solutions are built for extremely knowledgeable data scientists and analysts, IBM s Watson Analytics makes advanced and predictive business analytics easily accessible to small businesses. The platform doesn t require any requisite skills of using complex data mining and analysis systems, but automates the process instead. This self-service analytics solution includes a suite of data access, data refinement and data warehousing services, giving you all the tools you need to prepare and present data yourself in a simple and actionable way to guide decision-making.

Unlike other analytics solutions that focus on one area of business, Watson Analytics unifies all your data analysis projects into a single platform it can be used for all types of data analysis, from marketing to sales, finance, human resources and other parts of your operations. Its natural language technology helps businesses identify problems, recognize patterns and gain meaningful insights to answer key questions like what ultimately drive sales, which deals are likely to close, how to make employees happy and more.

6. Canopy Labs

Big Data won t just help you make better business decisions; it can help you predict the future, too. Canopy Labs. a customer analytics platform, uses customer behavior, sales trends and predictive behavioral models to extract valuable information for future marketing campaigns and to help you discover the most opportune product recommendations.

One of Canopy Labs standout features is the 360-degree Customer View, which shows comprehensive data about each individual customer. Its purpose is two-fold: first, it reveals each customers standing, such as lifetime value, loyalty and engagement level, as well as purchase histories, email behaviors and other metrics and this shows which customers are profitable and worth reaching out to. Second, with this information, businesses can better create personalized offers, track customer responses and launch improved outreach campaigns. Canopy Labs handles the complex, technical side of Big Data, so all you have to focus on are your customers. The service is free for up to 5,000 customers. Paid plans for additional customers start at $250 a month.

7. Tranzlogic

It s no secret that credit card transactions are chock full of invaluable data. Although access was once limited to companies with significant resources, customer intelligence company Tranzlogic makes this information available to small businesses without the big business budget.

Tranzlogic works with merchants and payment systems to extract and analyze proprietary data from credit card purchases. This information can then be used to measure sales performance, evaluate customers and customer segments, improve promotions and loyalty programs, launch more-effective marketing campaigns, write better business plans, and perform other tasks that lead to smarter business decisions. Moreover, Tranzlogic requires no tech smarts to get started it is a turnkey program, meaning there is no installation or programming required. Simply log in to access your merchant portal. Contact Tranzlogic for pricing information.

8. Qualtrics

If you don t currently have any rich sources for data, conducting research may be the answer. Qualtrics lets businesses conduct a wide range of studies and surveys to gain quality insights to guide data-driven decision making.

Qualtrics offers three types of real-time insights: customer, market and employee insights. To gain customer insight, use Qualtrics survey software for customer satisfaction, customer experience and website feedback surveys. To study the market, Qualtrics also offers advertising testing, concept testing and market research programs. And when it comes to your team, Qualtrics can help conduct employee surveys, exit interviews and reviews. Other options include online samples, academic research and mobile surveys. Contact Qualtrics to request pricing.

Hadoop

Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storing data and running applications on clusters of commodity hardware. It provides massive storage for any kind of data, enormous processing power and the ability to handle virtually limitless concurrent tasks or jobs.

Hadoop History

As the World Wide Web grew in the late 1900s and early 2000s, search engines and indexes were created to help locate relevant information amid the text-based content. In the early years, search results were returned by humans. But as the web grew from dozens to millions of pages, automation was needed. Web crawlers were created, many as university-led research projects, and search engine start-ups took off (Yahoo, AltaVista, etc.).

One such project was an open-source web search engine called Nutch – the brainchild of Doug Cutting and Mike Cafarella. They wanted to return web search results faster by distributing data and calculations across different computers so multiple tasks could be accomplished simultaneously. During this time, another search engine project called Google was in progress. It was based on the same concept – storing and processing data in a distributed, automated way so that relevant web search results could be returned faster.

In 2006, Cutting joined Yahoo and took with him the Nutch project as well as ideas based on Google’s early work with automating distributed data storage and processing. The Nutch project was divided – the web crawler portion remained as Nutch and the distributed computing and processing portion became Hadoop (named after Cutting’s son’s toy elephant). In 2008, Yahoo released Hadoop as an open-source project. Today, Hadoop’s framework and ecosystem of technologies are managed and maintained by the non-profit Apache Software Foundation (ASF), a global community of software developers and contributors.

Why is Hadoop important?

Ability to store and process huge amounts of any kind of data, quickly. With data volumes and varieties constantly increasing, especially from social media and the Internet of Things (IoT), that’s a key consideration.

Computing power. Hadoop’s distributed computing model processes big data fast. The more computing nodes you use, the more processing power you have.

Fault tolerance. Data and application processing are protected against hardware failure. If a node goes down, jobs are automatically redirected to other nodes to make sure the distributed computing does not fail. Multiple copies of all data are stored automatically.

Flexibility. Unlike traditional relational databases, you don’t have to preprocess data before storing it. You can store as much data as you want and decide how to use it later. That includes unstructured data like text, images and videos.

Low cost. The open-source framework is free and uses commodity hardware to store large quantities of data.

Scalability. You can easily grow your system to handle more data simply by adding nodes. Little administration is required.

What are the challenges of using Hadoop?

MapReduce programming is not a good match for all problems. It’s good for simple information requests and problems that can be divided into independent units, but it’s not efficient for iterative and interactive analytic tasks. MapReduce is file-intensive. Because the nodes don’t intercommunicate except through sorts and shuffles, iterative algorithms require multiple map-shuffle/sort-reduce phases to complete. This creates multiple files between MapReduce phases and is inefficient for advanced analytic computing.

There’s a widely acknowledged talent gap. It can be difficult to find entry-level programmers who have sufficient Java skills to be productive with MapReduce. That’s one reason distribution providers are racing to put relational (SQL) technology on top of Hadoop. It is much easier to find programmers with SQL skills than MapReduce skills. And, Hadoop administration seems part art and part science, requiring low-level knowledge of operating systems, hardware and Hadoop kernel settings.

Data security. Another challenge centers around the fragmented data security issues, though new tools and technologies are surfacing. The Kerberos authentication protocol is a great step toward making Hadoop environments secure.

Full-fledged data management and governance. Hadoop does not have easy-to-use, full-feature tools for data management, data cleansing, governance and metadata. Especially lacking are tools for data quality and standardization.

Fun Fact: Hadoop” was the name of a yellow toy elephant owned by the son of one of its inventors.

Hadoop in Today’s World

The promise of low-cost, high-availability storage and processing power has drawn many organizations to Hadoop. Yet for many, a central question remains: How can Hadoop help us with big data and analytics? Learn more here!

A big read: Hadoop for the enterprise

This comprehensive 40-page Best Practices Report from TDWI explains how Hadoop and its implementations are evolving to enable enterprise deployments that go beyond niche applications.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Moose Hunting in Alaska Life History

Scat

Depends on the season and food source. Pellet shape is directly related to the moisture content in the food. In winter, pellets are hard and dry.

Heavy bodied and long-legged, with a drooping nose, moose (Alces alces ) are the largest members of the deer family. They range in color from golden brown to almost black, depending upon the season and the age of the animal. Full-grown males (bulls) stand almost 6 ft (1.8 m) tall at the shoulder, and males in prime condition weigh from 1,200 to 1,600 lbs (542 –725 kg). Adult females are somewhat smaller and weigh 800 to 1,300 lbs (364 – 591 kg). A 1,600-lb (726-kg) moose will dress out at about 950 lbs (431 kg), yielding approximately 500 lbs (227 kg) of meat. Alaskans and nonresidents annually harvest 6,000 to 8,000 moose, which translates into about 3.5 million pounds of usable meat.

Only bull moose have antlers. The largest moose antlers in North America come from Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and the Northwest Territories of Canada. Trophy class bulls are found throughout Alaska, but the largest come from the western portion of the state. Moose occasionally produce trophy-size antlers when they are 6 or 7 years old, with the largest antlers grown at approximately 10 – 12 years of age. In the wild, moose rarely live more than 16 years.

Moose are generally associated with northern forests in North America, Europe, and Russia. In Europe, they are called elk. In Alaska, they occur in suitable habitat from the Stikine River of Southeast Alaska to the Colville River on the Arctic Slope. They are most abundant in recently burned areas that contain willow and birch shrubs, on timberline plateaus, and along the major rivers of Southcentral and Interior Alaska.

During fall and winter, moose consume large quantities of willow, birch, and aspen twigs. In some areas, moose actually establish a hedge or browse line 6 to 8 ft (1.8 – 2.4 m) above the ground by clipping most of the terminal shoots of favored food species. Spring is the time of grazing as well as browsing. Moose eat a variety of foods, particularly sedges, equisetum (horsetail), pond weeds, and grasses. During summer, moose feed on vegetation in shallow ponds, forbs, and the leaves of birch, willow, and aspen.

Big Data, Analytics Sales Will Reach $187 Billion By 2019

Market research firm IDC forecasts a 50% increase in revenues from the sale of big data and business analytics software, hardware, and services between 2015 and 2019. Services will account for the biggest chunk of revenue, with banking and manufacturing-led industries poised to spend the most.

10 Best US Cities For Tech Jobs In 2016

(Click image for larger view and slideshow.)

Data is the driving force underlying market disrupters such as ride-sharing service Uber. Data and analytic projects dominated the top of InformationWeek’s Elite 100 list in 2016. So it’s no surprise that IDC’s most recent forecast for the big data and business analytics market shows significant revenue growth for the next five years.

IDC predicts revenue from the sales of big data and business analytics applications, tools, and services will increase more than 50%, from nearly $122 billion in 2015 to more than $187 billion in 2019. The analyst firm estimates revenue by technology, industry, and geography in its Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide .

Service-related opportunities are expected to account for more than half of all revenue during the forecast period, according to IDC. IDC broke down those services even more into IT Services and Business Services. It said that IT Services are expected to bring in more than three times the annual revenues of Business Services.

After service, at number one, software is the next biggest revenue generator in big data and business analytics, according to IDC, with sales expected to generate more than $55 billion in revenues in 2019. Nearly half of those revenues are expected to come from purchases of end-user query, reporting, and analysis tools, and of data warehouse management tools, according to IDC.

Organizations are expected to spend on hardware specifically in the big data and business analytics realm. IDC is forecasting hardware spending to hit nearly $28 billion in 2019.

In a prepared statement. Dan Vesset. group vice president of analytics and information management at IDC, said:

Organizations able to take advantage of the new generation of business analytics solutions can leverage digital transformation to adapt to disruptive changes and to create competitive differentiation in their markets. These organizations don’t just automate existing processes — they treat data and information as they would any valued asset by using a focused approach to extracting and developing the value and utility of information.

Industries Reaping Big Data Rewards

Breaking it down by industry, IDC said the largest revenue opportunities are in manufacturing and banking — with discrete manufacturing forecast to reach $22.8 billion in 2019, banking predicted to reach $22.1 billion in 2019, and process manufacturing expected to reach $16.4 billion in 2019.

IDC identified four other industries expected to generate revenues of more than $10 billion in 2019 — federal and central government, professional services, telecommunications, and retail.

Meanwhile, the industries that experience the fastest revenue growth in big data and business analytics revenue are expected to be utilities, resource industries, healthcare, and banking.

Size Matters

The biggest organizations are expected to be the biggest purchasers of big data and business analytics applications, tools, and services. IDC said sales of these products to companies with more than 500 employees are expected to generate a combined total of more than $140 billion in revenue in 2019.

“There is little question that big data and analytics can have a considerable impact on just about every industry,” said Jessica Goepfert. program director for customer insights and analysis, at IDC, in a statement. “Its promise speaks to the pressure to improve margins and performance while simultaneously enhancing responsiveness and delighting customers and prospects. Forward-thinking organizations turn to this technology for better and faster data-driven decisions.”

Breaking out Geographies

IDC also broke down the forecast numbers on a geographic basis. The US will account for more than half of all revenue generated by sales of big data and business analytics software, technology, and services, the company said. By 2019, IDC said it expects revenue generated by the US market for big data and business analytics solutions to exceed $98 billion.

After the US, Western Europe will generate the second highest revenue for vendors of big data and business analytics products and services, followed by Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), and Latin America.

Two regions expected to generate the fastest growth in revenue from the sales of big data and analytics products during the five-year forecast period are Latin America and the Middle East and Africa region.

Jessica Davis has spent a career covering the intersection of business and technology at titles including IDG’s Infoworld, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s eWeek and Channel Insider, and Penton Technology’s MSPmentor. She’s passionate about the practical use of business intelligence. View Full Bio

How to Email Video Clips via Gmail

If you’re trying to send a video file to someone through your Gmail account, you may have come across the 25 MB attachment size limit. Luckily, Gmail allows you to link any files in your Google Drive account, and all Gmail accounts come with 15 GB of free storage. This means you can use Google Drive to send video files of virtually any size to anyone you want, without having to worry about size limits. You can also embed YouTube videos into your messages.

Steps Edit

Method One of Two: Using Google Drive for Video Files Edit

Sign into your Google Drive account. All Gmail accounts come with 15 GB of free Google Drive storage. You can upload video files of any size to Drive and then share them through Gmail. The recipient(s) will not need a Drive account to download the video file. Log into Drive with the same Google account you use for Gmail. [1]

You can use the Google Drive website on your computer ( drive.google.com ), or the Google Drive mobile app on your Android or iOS device.

You can attach video files up to 25 MB directly to a Gmail message using the Attachments button. but most videos are far larger than this. This is especially true of HD video. Using Drive allows you to send videos of any size.

Upload the video file that you want to send through Gmail. Drive allows you to upload files of any size. The process for uploading files is pretty straightforward for both the desktop and mobile app versions:

Desktop – Drag the file you want to upload into the Drive window. The file will begin uploading. You can also click the “New” button, select “File upload”, and then browse for the video file on your computer.

Mobile – Find the file on your device that you want to send to drive. Use a File Manager app to quickly browse through your stored files. Select the file and tap the “Share” button in the menu. Select “Google Drive” from the list of apps, and then tap “Save”.

Wait for the video to upload. The upload may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the size of the video file and the speed of your internet connection. You won’t be able to attach the file until it has been completely uploaded.

If you’re using a mobile device, you’ll likely want to be connected to a wireless network to avoid eating up your mobile data.

Compose a new Gmail message. Once your video has been uploaded, you can attach it to any Gmail message. Compose your message as normal.

Attach the video file from Google Drive. You can attach the video file much like you would a regular attachment.

Desktop – Click the Drive icon at the bottom of the Compose window. This will open a new window showing your Drive files. Select the video file you want to add. You can also choose from videos that other Drive users have shared with you, or you can upload a video from your computer. Make sure “Drive link” is selected in the bottom-right corner.

Mobile – Tap the Attachments button at the top of the screen. Select “Insert from Drive”. Find the video file that you want to share and then tap “Select”.

Send the message. The message will send immediately, since the file is linked and not actually attached to the message.

Have the recipient follow the Drive link in the message. Your recipient will be able to access the video by clicking the link in your message. The video will open in a new tab, and they can either stream the video immediately without downloading it or click the Download button at the top of the page. If they are signed in to Drive, they can save it to their Drive account as well.

Why can’t the recipient download the video clip sent via Drive? They can view it but not download.

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

Usually this is due to the permissions you have set for the file. In order to enable downloading, you should go to “Share” and type in the email of your recipient(s). Once you have done that, set their permissions to “Can Edit”. They should be able to download the file now.

How do you email part of a YouTube video?

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

The short answer is that you can’t, not unless you either download it and edit it or use a desktop recorder to record only the bit you want and send that instead.

If I share a video from Google Drive will the recipient be able to view everything on my drive or just the video?

Queen’s Guard

The Queen’s Guard is a guard on special duty who appeared just northwest and southeast of Gypsy Aris ‘ tent and southwest of Horvik ‘s shop on 22 May 2012.

Speaking with them shows that they are to make sure the area is spick ‘n’ span for a Diamond Jubilee which seemed to be a “top secret” event to be hosted by the Queen. This was a teaser for the Diamond Jubilee event.

The event was released on 29 May 2012. along with the Queen Black Dragon. The event offered players a chance to earn a corgi as a pet, hire a Queen’s Guard as a servant for a POH. and participate in the fourth Cryptic Clue event. This event lasted for two weeks.

When talked to, he accused the player of being the POH Servant’s accomplice. The player could reply “You’ll never take me alive, Copper!”, making the avatar walk away from the Guard, shouting.

Concept art of the Jubilee characters

POH Servant Edit

Players may hire a Queen’s Guard in their Player-owned houses at the Servant’s Guild. which is located north of the marketplace in East Ardougne. The guard has the same functions as Rick. To hire, you must have a Level 20 in Construction. He shares the lowest wage at 500 coins (375 coins after the completion of Love Story ). Players must pay him every eight uses of his services. The Queen’s Guard has inventory space for 6 items and a trip time of 60 seconds. The guard is unable to go to the sawmill as he lacks insurance to do so.

Trivia Edit

The Guards are styled in the fashion of the Life Guards. one of the two regiments that make up the Household Cavalry. the Cavalry forms 2 of the 7 regiments (5 infantry) in the Household Division which guard the royal residences. As with all the guards units, the Life Guards are a professional combat unit within the British Army, and are used as armoured reconnaissance troops – The ceremonial uniform, and the horses, are no longer used in combat however.

During the event, many bankers across Gielinor are replaced by the Queen’s Guard.

Contrary to popular belief, you may hire the Royal Guard after the event, even if you have never hired him before.

Apple’s Retail Strategy Is Still Paying Off in a Big Way

NEW YORK (TheStreet ) — Apple (AAPL ) no longer breaks out the sales of its retail store business as part of its quarterly results, but industry analysts who follow the consumer-electronics leader say the rest of Apple’s report suggests its retail operations remain strong at a time when the company is launching its most anticipated product in years.

Apple’s retail stores received attention recently for having only display models of the Apple Watch and only allowing customers to place orders for the device. The practice was promoted in an email and video by Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail. She encouraged retail employees to push consumers to purchase an Apple Watch through Apple’s online store.

Ahrendts’ method of promoting the Apple Watch was seen by some as a change in Apple’s retail strategy. Historically, the company has hyped up the first-day sales of new products, leading to long lines outside Apple’s stores.

But analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies said the absence of the Apple Watch in the Apple stores was more of a “one-off” event than a change in the company’s retail direction.

“You can’t glean any retail information from the Apple Watch,” Bajarin said. “That had to do with their supply chain. But you can get a pretty strong understanding that since their [overall] numbers did well, you have to believe that retail is stronger than ever.”

For the fiscal second quarter. Apple said it earned $13.6 billion, or $2.33 a share, on revenue of $58 billion. In the same quarter a year earlier, Apple reported a profit of $10.2 billion, or $1.66 a share, on $45.6 billion in revenue. Sales of the iPhone and Mac were among the quarter’s highlights, with iPhone revenue rising 55% from a year ago to $40.3 billion on the sale of 61.2 million units. Mac revenue rose 2% to $5.62 billion on 4.6 million units.

7 Layout Secrets of the Big Retail Chains

Ever walked into a big chain store and walked out with way more than you had planned to purchase? Big retailers certainly seem to know how to design their stores and create tempting displays to keep us shopping.

What s their secret? Here are seven layout tips from experts who have worked with many major retailers.

1. Make windows shine. Many small retailers don t do window displays, letting customers simply look straight into the shop. That s a mistake, says store design and display consultant Linda Cahan of Cahan Co. in West Linn, Ore. Just like your eyes are the windows of your soul, store windows are the eyes of the store, she says. Each window should tell a story.

To create an appealing display, use a single color theme to grab attention and communicate your store s image. It s also important to avoid clutter because in retailing, space equals luxury, Cahan says. If you cram items together in a window, they ll look cheap. Think of how Tiffany displays just a few items in the window, communicating that they are special.

2. Make an arresting first impression. When customers enter your store, an eye-catching display up front should make them slow down. Otherwise, they may hurry on through the store and buy little. Notice how Costco sets up large seasonal displays at its entrances, often with a product pulled out of its box — a kitchen appliance or fresh plants — that shoppers can stop to touch, smell or try.

One problem in many small stores is a high rack up front that blocks views of the rest of the shop. If customers don t like what they see on that first set of shelves, they might leave. Instead, use lower shelving units with shorter pegs and narrower shelves. This makes the store look full without having to stock too much merchandise, as well as allows customers to see farther into the shop, says Pat Johnson, co-owner of the Seattle-based consulting firm Outcalt Johnson: Retail Strategists .

3. Steer customers to the right. Retailers should design their stores to draw shoppers to the right side of the entryway. Studies have shown that most people naturally look first left, then right as they enter a store, says Brian Dyches, chief experience officer of retail branding firm Ikonic Tonic in Los Angeles. Shoppers usually then prefer to move right and walk counter-clockwise around the store.

For instance, enter a Safeway grocery store in the chain s upscale Marketplace format, and your eye is drawn to the floral department on the right. The bright colors and floral scents remind shoppers of happy times in their lives, Dyches says, both putting them in a good mood and encouraging them to move right and begin walking the store counter-clockwise

At 136-year-old Hermann Furniture in Brenham, Texas, visitors enter a foyer dominated by a round table of seasonal merchandise. Shoppers must pause at the table and decide how to navigate around it. A wider aisle on the right encourages them to move around the table in that direction.

4. Lead them somewhere. Often, small retailers fail to put a compelling display at the end of an aisle, says store designer Cahan. They create an aisle that ends at nothing, either a back wall or a stockroom or the bathroom.

Instead, Dyches says, retailers might use a long aisle to lead customers to a new department laid out perpendicular to other racks.

5. Have an angle. While it s most efficient to lay out aisles parallel to the store s exterior walls, retailers can create more visual interest by placing them at an angle, Cahan says. Ideally, aisles could angle in from both sides to a central aisle, forming an arrow layout that ends in a back-wall display. But only take an angular approach if you can keep aisles wide enough for customers to navigate easily.

6. Create breaks. In studying shopping patterns with his clients, Dyches says he finds that up to 20 percent of the store s merchandise is skipped over. That s because long, uninterrupted aisles don t get people s attention.

Take a page from Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers: Create stopping points in the middle of long aisles, such as signs or displays that create a visual break. Dyches likes how clothing chain Anthropologie often repeats a design behind wall displays and then changes or ends the pattern to try to get customers to stop at a special display.

7. Offer hugs. People are attracted to round and U-shapes, Dyches says. To get shoppers to stop at a display, try hanging a circular sign from the ceiling or placing a U-shaped background, such as a low wall with small sides extending forward, behind it. These make people want to stop and enter the space, which resembles a person extending their arms for a hug. Nordstrom makes great use of this technique in apparel displays, putting U-shaped partial walls behind mannequins on some displays, Dyches says.

Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your Layout

On a tight budget? Consider these tips to begin improving your layout.

Ask key employees and your best customers to walk through the store and offer feedback, says Dick Outcalt, co-owner of Outcalt Johnson, which offers a questionnaire designed to help pinpoint trouble spots. Another approach is to take photos of your store, then gather staff for an analysis.

Look for affordable help to make the changes you decide on if store design and merchandising aren t your forte. You might share the services and costs of a design professional with several nearby retailers, for instance, or hire a college student from a merchandising or marketing program who might work for minimum wage or just course credit, says Cahan.

To make low-cost displays, collect cheap decorative items that can be repainted and reused to fit different themes and seasons. Such items include empty picture frames, old watering cans and wooden chairs that can serve as shelving. All of those can be picked up at yard sales or from closeout bins at craft stores, Cahan says.

Don t consider it a finished job once you ve made your changes. You need to change displays regularly to give customers a fresh experience every time they shop. There s never an area where we don t change things nearly every day, says Jennifer Hermann, owner of Hermann Furniture. That s fun, and makes customers want to buy.